Black Los Angeles

American Dreams and Racial Realities

Darnell Hunt, Ana-Christina Ramon, 0

Publication Year: 2010

“The book brings together the research interests of what Hunt describes as an ‘all‒star team’ of contributors, most but not all of them academics with strong California connections. Comprising 17 short to medium‒length essays, it pivots from data‒rich analyses of how the black community’s 20th century demographic center gradually has shifted from Central Avenue to Leimert Park, to interview‒driven, anecdotal accounts of the rise and decline of Venice’s Oakwood neighborhood and a revealing chronicle of the black‒owned SOLAR (Sounds of Los Angeles Records), a late ‘70s‒early ‘80s hit‒making machine for groups including the Whispers, Shalamar and Klymaxx.”

Cover

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

An original volume of this scope would have been impossible to produce
without the input of dozens of scholars and community stakeholders.
Throughout this eight-year project, we indeed have been fortunate to
benefit from such input, particularly from our contributors, to whom we
are deeply...

Introduction: Dreaming of Black Los Angeles

So begins a typical episode of Black Entertainment Television’s Baldwin
Hills,1 a scripted “reality” program that debuted on the black-oriented cable
network in 2007. Developed by a white production company,2 Baldwin
Hills was among BET’s most popular shows in 2007. It was seen in nearly
1 million black homes...

PART 1. Space

1. Race, Space, and the Evolution of Black Los Angeles

First elected in 1973, Tom Bradley is usually credited as the first black
mayor of Los Angeles. But a more comprehensive history of the city must
recognize that Francisco Reyes was actually the first. His term began in
1793, when the city was still under the Spanish flag. To be sure, the African
presence...

Since the turn of the twentieth century, there have been two prominent
black centers in Los Angeles: the Central Avenue community from approximately
1900 to 1950, and the Crenshaw/Leimert Park Village community
from approximately 1960 to the present. Central Avenue and
Crenshaw Boulevard...

3. The Decline of a Black Community by the Sea: Demographic and Political Changes in Oakwood

I attended a party at the small cottage of my wife’s friend John, a white
man in his late twenties, who recently moved to Oakwood and works in
the film production industry. Oakwood, a one-square-mile area in Venice,
California, was oft en recognized as a distinct neighborhood altogether.
Many referred to...

PART 2. People

4. “Blowing Up” at Project Blowed: Rap Dreams and Young Black Men

In 2009, Trenseta was a thirty-four-year-old African American male who
stood around 6 feet and weighed close to 180 pounds. Despite being lean,
he had a deceptively muscular build, which he credited to lifting weights
and playing pickup basketball almost daily. A die-hard Los Angeles Lakers
fan, he...

5. Out of the Void: Street Gangs in Black Los Angeles

With the exception of a few studies,1 what is most striking about the corpus
of gang research is the lack of attention paid to how race, segregation,
and discrimination worked together to create the communities that have
spawned street gangs. These important factors certainly shaped the first
clubs that later...

6. Imprisoning the Family: Incarceration in Black Los Angeles

As co-investigators, we shared an academic interest in examining the impact
of incarceration on families, but as we became better acquainted, we
discovered that the topic had far more intimate significance for us. Some
of us grew up in neighborhoods where incarceration was commonplace
and access to...

7. Black and Gay in L.A.: The Relationships Black Lesbians and Gay Men Have to Their Racial and Religious Communities

On November 4, 2008, California voters passed Proposition 8, an initiative
on the state ballot that sought to eliminate the right of same-sex couples
to marry. The proposition passed by a 52 to 48 percent margin, and
the first exit polls conducted by the Associated Press reported that 70 percent
of black voters...

PART 3. Image

8. Looking for the ’Hood and Finding Community: South Central, Race, and Media

“This is the worst neighborhood in Los Angeles?!” my friend shouted as
we drove through Watts. In the mid-1990s, I took a visiting friend on my
own political tour to show her some of the race and class segregation that
quietly divides Los Angeles. We began in Bel Air and ended in Watts.
She had seen...

9. Playing “Ghetto”: Black Actors, Stereotypes, and Authenticity

As I sit across from a beautiful black woman with long, flowing hair, I
feel like I am in the presence of a movie star. Although she is not a recognizable
celebrity, Vivian’s melodious voice and elegant movements underscore
her background as a dancer and actor. Donning a red cashmere
sweater, she tells...

10. Before and After Watts: Black Art in Los Angeles

In 1929, the California Art Club hosted the first recorded black art show
in Los Angeles. The exhibit was brought to California from Chicago and
did not feature local artists. Only at the request of the club were three
local black artists included. Unfortunately, the exhibit was not warmly received
by Arthur Miller...

11. SOLAR: The History of the Sounds of Los Angeles Records

SOLAR (Sound of Los Angeles Records) was the most dominant, black-owned
record label from the late 1970s through the 1980s.1 SOLAR,
known as the Motown of the 1980s, dominated R&B and pop music with
a run of hits from a large roster of artists, including The Whispers, Shalamar,
Lakeside...

12. Killing “Killer King”: The Los Angeles Times and a “Troubled” Hospital in the ’Hood

The above quote, which comes from an overview of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize
winners for Public Service, is as familiar as it is ambiguous. The “courageous,
exhaustively researched series”2 referred to in the quote is based
on the investigative work of a team of white Los Angeles Times reporters.3 Celebrated by American...

PART 4. Action

On August 8, 2008, a beautiful Friday morning in Los Angeles, patrons
are waved through the gates of the California Science Center at Exposition
Park, a sprawling urban oasis and educational center that sits at the
gateway to South Los Angeles. The parking lot, which is normally bordered
by yell...

In August 1985, two African American women learned that the City of
Los Angeles had selected their neighborhood as the site for a thirteen-acre,
municipal solid waste incinerator plant. They immediately took action
by establishing the Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles
(CCSCLA)—“one...

15. A Common Project for a Just Society: Black Labor in Los Angeles

On September 7, 2007, a standing-room-only reception was held in the
lobby of the Los Angeles Sentinel.1 The energized scene included Congresswoman
Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), Kwanzaa founder and chair
of the US Organization Maulana Karenga,2 and the activist Rev. Eric Lee,
head of the Southern...

16. Reclaiming UCLA: The Education Crisis in Black Los Angeles

On a Sunday morning in June 2006, Los Angeles woke up to the above
words under the headline “A Startling Statistic at UCLA.” Media throughout
the nation soon picked up the news, reigniting a long-standing debate
about higher education, race, and access.2 For much of the city’s black
community, the revelation...

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